2006-01-09

hermionesviolin: image of snow covered hill and trees with text "the snow with its whiteness" (snow)
2006-01-09 01:08 am

Emmanuel Lutheran: Formal Lutheran Worship

When I looked out the window this morning I thought there had been a heavy frost, but no it was actually a light dusting of snow.  I didn't remember there being snow in the forecast last time I checked, but I was pleased.  When I walked outside I was just filled with such joy, because the scent/feel of snow in the air pleases me so much.  (It turned into rain -- or just ceased, and melted; I'm unsure -- later, which is unfortunate, but at least I had joy.)

Emmanuel Lutheran Church
08:45 a.m. Formal Lutheran Worship with Holy Communion.
Child care provided.
10:00 a.m. Sunday Church School
10:00 a.m. Fellowship Hour with refreshments.
11:15 a.m. Contemporary Worship with Holy Communion.
Child care provided.

I went to the contemporary service early in my Ecumenical Advent, and I didn't notice much different this time -- though I'm sure that's aided by the fact that it's been a while since I attended and I've been to an assortment of High Church type services since then.

I recall the pastor standing at the front of the sanctuary to give Communion whereas in this service they did the kneeling rail thing, but that's the only difference that sticks out.

Anyway.

I came in and the front of the sanctuary was awash with red, and some green.  I hadn't been in since Advent.  And there was a drape on either side -- the Holy Family on the left and the Magi on the right.  Creams and browns, very nice.

As one came in the sanctuary, there were the Magi Nativity figurines on the little table that has pamphlets and stuff.

The Processional Carol was "We Three Kings of Orient Are."  Congregation sings opening verse and refrain, Pastor reads The Story of the Magi as instrumental music plays quietly in the background, then we have the three verses sung by the men with the women joining in for the refrains.  Gaspard (gold), Melchior (frankincense), Balthazar (myrrh).  I'm always a bit weirded by the mention of Balthazar 'cause I remember Balthazar&Pebbles from JMN 94.5.  At each verse, an altar boy (or whatever they're called) processed down the aisle holding one of the figurines and then stood in front of the altar holding it.  After the hymn was over the figurines got placed in front of the Nativity.  Just the other night I had been saying to Ari that if you do Three Kings Day you can't have them as part of your Nativity on Christmas Day, so this pleased me muchly.

I saw Pastor Saling process in, which pleased me.  I don't know if this was the first time he was back since his stroke or what, but he looked well.

Reading from the Hebrew Scriptures: Genesis 1:1-5
To a people experiencing the chaos of defeat, devastation, and exile, these familiar words bring great comfort.  Out of chaos, God brings order.  Creation by command demonstrates God's absolute sovereignty, which is not shared with any other gods.  Notice the sequence of "evening" and "morning"--the Jewish day begins at sunset.

The version in the bulletin began: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters."

I found it interesting that the bulletin intro would talk about familiarity and comfort because hearing about the "waters" of the pre-Creation always makes me think of Joel's class and the various non-Judeo-Christian Creation stories and the sea creatures and just so many different things that trouble the comfortable traditional understanding of the Creation story.

I did like the idea of looking at it as, "Out of chaos, God brings order."

I loved the idea that Judaism starts its days at sunset because of how this is phrased.

The Epiphany Canticle was "Gift of God," which refrain is "Gift of God, O Emmanuel."  One of the lines is "With the anawim and Magi."  Google tells me that Anawim is an Old Testament Hebrew word variously translated as "poor," "afflicted," "humble," or "meek" --  c.f. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven," and "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:3,5).

Reading from the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 19:1-7

Gospel Processional Hymn:
Verse one only:
As with gladness men of old did the guiding star behold;
As with joy they hailed in light, leading onward, beaming bright;
So, most gracious Lord, may we evermore be led to thee.


Gospel Announcement: Mark 1:4-11

Gospel Recessional Hymn:
Verse four only:
Holy Jesus, every day keep us in the narrow way;
And when earthly things are past, bring our ransomed souls at last
Where they need no star to guide, where no clouds thy glory hide.


Sermon:
Pastor Saling talked about John the Baptist as the opening act for Jesus the headliner.
The most interesting part of his sermon came early on when he talked about how John was very careful in the planning of everything and selected the Jordan River -- where the Israelites entered the Promised Land.  Love love love all the implications and layers of that.  He also talked about Jesus bringing them back to the starting line, and I'm not entirely sure how that followed, and John being place-specific whereas Jesus was like GPS, and having grown up in Christian churches I get where he was going with it but it felt a bit clumsily executed.  But Jordan River as entry point!

And skipping over the rest of the service . . .

The Sending Hymn was "All Things Now Living," which I don't think I'd ever heard before but which was upbeat and energetic and I liked muchly.
hermionesviolin: (ball failure)
2006-01-09 01:10 am
Entry tags:

Spaceballs (1987)

I’m fairly certain Eric listed this as one of his top Mel Brooks movies. This does not bode all that well. I chortled a lot (and had a couple of moments of “Hey, that’s a [livejournal.com profile] ghostintheshell icon!”) but it’s not something I adore, and if his other stuff is less funny . . . .

a few spoilers )
hermionesviolin: image of Buffy in the desert in "Restless" with text "small girl in a big girl world" (small girl in big world [_extraflamey_])
2006-01-09 01:14 am
Entry tags:

CSI: NY rerun: "The Closer" (1.22)

I passed on the Bruce Springsteen Cold Case ("8 Years" 3.11), but “A Red Sox fan is killed near Yankee Stadium” was clearly necessary viewing.

Stella speaking Greek. Aiden. I enjoy.

Read more... )
hermionesviolin: (dragons)
2006-01-09 01:16 am
Entry tags:

CSI: Miami rerun: "Vengeance" (3.22)

High school reunion? I was intrigued. As it turns out, it was nothing special, and the other plotline was part of an ongoing arc which made it a bad choice for a random rerun to happen upon.

tiny spoiler )
hermionesviolin: (dead from book)
2006-01-09 01:17 am

fandom

So, I finished my FemGen story and didn’t feel that it sucked. The recipient hasn’t feedbacked it yet (but she hasn’t posted her own fic for the ‘thon, so I figure she hasn’t read it yet) but I got 3 positive feedbacks. And zomg, one of them actually recced it on her journal. (Hey, Ari, she recced two of your fics.)

Also: I suck at coming up with requests when I’m signing up for ficathons, so for FemGen I put Dawn as my first request and River as my second, and my prompts were just words you could go a million ways with. Since they’re two of my favorite characters, I figured odds were in my favor that the fic I got wouldn’t suck... hopefully. Gee, can we tell that I’ve been burned in ficathons before? So I see [livejournal.com profile] alixtii is writing for me and he often writes good stuff and I hop over to his LJ and see it has River and Dawn and the Authorial Summary is “There are only so many stories,” and we all know what a sucker I am for stories.

Oh so much to read. (And I feel lame that I spent so much time in front of the tv screen tonight when I could have been reading lj entries of substance or whatever.)

Five Things Archive (for Five Things... stories in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the series 'verse)

Multifandom Feedback Challenge (signups end Jan. 13)
I think there was something like this a while back and I meant to go through the works of the authors who signed up ‘cause people who *want* feedback are exciting, but I don’t think I ever did. Anyway, I get whiny ‘cause no one comments on my stuff, so I signed up. Though now of course I am in one of my “Everything I have written is shite save a very few things” headspaces.

And I go back to work tomorrow -- a full 5-day week, a rarity -- and I've really gotta stop doing the late-to-bed thing. Three of us have to be up in ~5 hours, and we're all still up; though at least two of us are heading to bed shortly.

P.S. Postal rates went up.